On her love scene with Henry Cavill “These kinds of things are always uncomfortable whenever you do it. There is never a good time for these scenes that deal with intimacy. Honestly, I don’t mentally prepare myself. I just go in and do what I need to do. It’s my job and I try and separate that from reality.”

Childhood inspiration “In terms of wanting to do acting professionally, I think back to Charlize Theron when she did Monster. I was like, ‘Wow.’ Someone as gorgeous as that to go into a direction completely opposite and transform herself into something as the film says- monster- and to have heart in it, I think it was fantastic and a brilliant job done.”

Getting the most out of her college degree “Don’t ask me how economics helped me because I do not know! I have left all of that but psychology. Sometimes when you’re talking to someone it reminds you of something you read in the past and obviously I don’t want to get overanalytical since I’m not a psychologist, but it helps you understand the psyche of the character that much better. Economics, I have no idea.”

On her career plan “There is only so much you can do in the span of your career. Sticking to one genre would limit myself in terms of what I can do and possibly deliver. I don’t want to just dabble in things that stereotype me in any way or stop me from getting those versatile roles. I want to do everything from independent cinema to big budget films. That’s the beauty of the profession, every day is a new job interview. I just want to enjoy the whole extent of it.” Finding common ground with Dev “I sound like a broken record saying this but no one else understands what we actually went through except the two of us because we went sailing in the same boat. I guess when we talk about the future and the next steps, like the next film or the next project, we both know how completely far we’ve come in terms of being the nervous person that I was in 2008. I want to listen to what his opinion is, he wants to listen to what my opinion is. I think that kind of understanding comes from knowing someone that well.”

On her role model “Being an Asian Indian actress, people always expect me to name another one. I don’t have to think that way anymore because the world is smaller and we live in a very cosmopolitan time. To me, I would name a male actor. The kind of career path Javier Bardem has chosen is inspiring.”